City needs school district to grant extension on Stocking Elementary park agreement

The Grand Rapids PressGrand Rapids schools closed Stocking Elementary last year. The city of Grand Rapids wants to convert it to a neighborhood park.

GRAND RAPIDS - The city government’s deal to raise money to buy Stocking Elementary expires July 31, but city leaders say they’re not ready -- but are still interested.

The city has a six-month agreement with the school district to explore raising money to buy the building and use the land at 863 Seventh St. NW to help address the need for West Side parks.

Stocking, which closed last year, carries a $535,000 price tag. However, city leaders said they’ll need to raise more than $1 million to cover demolition and park development costs.

”We are still interested in making the park project work,” said Eric DeLong, assistant city manager, who said seeking an extension on the agreement would be the next step. “We have every intention of continuing to work on it.”

District spokesman John Helmholdt said the schools are willing to entertain an extension and remain committed to working with the city and the neighborhood.

Under the agreement, the district agreed to delay the process of selling Stocking.

DeLong said the developers already seeking city approval to convert three other vacant schools into apartments have potential interest in Stocking.

That’s because in addition to working with those developers on their apartment plans, the city is also exploring a potential partnership for developing the three school playgrounds into neighborhood parks. The city had initially talked about pursuing grants and possibly a community campaign to fund a Stocking park.

This month the Board of Education agreed to sell the vacant Oakdale, Lexington and Eastern schools to Ojibway Development LLC, which has an office in Troy, and its Minnesota partner, Dominium Development and Acquisition, for $1.6 million.

Suzanne Schulz, city planning director, said a parks partnership is worth exploring to improve the quality of life in neighborhoods.

”We are below the national standard for parks and green space,” said Schulz, who said losing school land is a huge loss for communities.

“Twenty-five percent of what we count as green space is owned by Grand Rapids schools. If we can work this out, it could be a win-win.”